We were deeply disappointed, but not surprised, when the International Olympic Committee turned a deaf ear to the request that the Olympic Games in London hold a moment of silence for the 11 slain Israeli athletes of the 1972 Munich Games, on the 40th anniversary of their tragic deaths at the hands of Palestine Liberation Organization terrorists.

Forty years ago, Palestinian “Black September” terrorists murdered 11 Israeli team members during the Olympic Games in Munich. Although the International Olympic Committee (IOC) declined Israel’s request for a moment of silence at this summer’s London games, there are scholars working to ensure that the 1972 tragedy isn’t forgotten.
One such expert is David Clay Large, a professor of history at Montana State University and author of the book Munich 1972: Tragedy, Terror, and Triumph at the Olympic Games.

Ronald Lauder has a good idea. In a gesture of peace and understanding, he wants to save the Iranians the humiliation of being defeated by Israeli athletes at the 2012 Olympics in London and protect the losers from any retribution they may incur for returning home with the stigma of having been bested by a Zionist by having them sit out next year's games.

West Nyack – On the front lawn of the Jewish community center here, a plot of grass is set aside for a memorial, to be dedicated this summer, to the 11 Israelis killed at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich. Inside the building’s front entrance, a large poster announces the status of a fundraising campaign that JCC Rockland is conducting in memory of the Munich 11. Further inside, T-shirts bearing the likeness of David Berger, an American-born weightlifter who was among the victims of Palestinian terrorists in 1972, are on sale.

You can still hear the laughter from 1992 when then-Vice President Dan Quayle made a speech critical of the family values depicted on the TV show ìMurphy Brown.î Enlightened columnists almost universally mocked Quayle for taking a TV show way too seriously.

But in the past two years, in what is starting to look like an annual event, first with ìThe Passion of the Christî and now with ìMunich,î some top Jewish journalists have gone totally Quayle with overheated angst that confuses a three-reeler with the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

For Sean McManus, the Munich Massacre in 1972, strikingly re-created by Steven Spielberg in his new film, is such a vivid memory that it seems like it happened only last month.
"I was there with my family ... to enjoy the Olympics," recalled McManus, 50, who in November was named president of both CBS News and CBS Sports.
His father is ABC sportscaster Jim McKay, who was assigned to cover several events at the Munich Games.